Alex Padilla U.S. Senator for California

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, along with U.S. Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-Md.-08) and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.-11), led 14 lawmakers in recommending that U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas take actions to fully implement enhanced protections for stateless individuals present in the United States.

Stateless persons do not have nationality or citizenship in any country of the world, and are particularly vulnerable as a result. This circumstance is created by events well outside of any individual’s control. This lack of status can result in significant financial hardship, separation from relatives, and lengthy or even indefinite immigration detention.

The letter follows bicameral legislation the lawmakers reintroduced earlier this year, the Stateless Protection Act, to establish a new protected status and a pathway to citizenship for stateless individuals residing in the United States.

“As the sponsors of bicameral legislation to protect stateless individuals and their families in the United States, we deeply appreciate the actions that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken to address statelessness, including enhancing protections,” wrote the lawmakers. “… Statelessness is a global problem that requires a comprehensive, tailored response.”

“Stateless noncitizens are disproportionately likely to experience lengthy periods of immigration detention in the United States because no country is obligated to accept the removal of a stateless person,” continued the lawmakers. “We urge ICE to consider statelessness as a mitigating factor in favor of declining enforcement action when making determinations regarding arrests, detainers, removal proceedings, and the execution of removal orders.”

The lawmakers made several recommendations to DHS, including:

• Consolidating adjudications of all parole-in-place and deferred action requests from stateless persons within a single unit at USCIS;
• Considering granting parole-in-place and deferred action requests based on statelessness for a period of three years, rather than one year, and permitting concurrent filing for work permits; and
• Developing guidance to better identify stateless persons when ICE first encounters them.

In addition to Senators Padilla, Cardin, and Durbin and Representatives Raskin and Connolly, the letter is signed by Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), as well as Representatives Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.-16), André Carson (D-Ind.-07), Joaquin Castro (D-Texas-20), Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.-07), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.-12), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.-02), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.-12), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Delia C. Ramirez (D-Ill.-03), and David Trone (D-Md.-06). 

Full text of the letter is available here and below:

Dear Secretary Mayorkas,

As the sponsors of bicameral legislation to protect stateless individuals and their families in the United States, we deeply appreciate the actions that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has taken to address statelessness, including enhancing protections for stateless individuals in the United States, beginning with your December 2021 Commitment to Enhance Protections for Stateless Individuals in the United States (“DHS commitment”). As that commitment recognized, statelessness is a global problem that requires a comprehensive, tailored response.

We also deeply appreciate the actions that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has taken so far to address statelessness, including building a process for making stateless determinations, and working to reduce barriers to legally available immigration relief and benefits faced by stateless persons. We urge you to consider the following recommendations to further enhance protections for stateless individuals and ensure consistency and coordination between DHS components with respect to such individuals. 

USCIS updated its policies to consider an individual’s potential statelessness as a factor in discretionary determinations, including requests for parole in place and deferred action. USCIS has also established a specialized unit to conduct advisory assessments of statelessness for immigration adjudicators on a potentially stateless noncitizen’s application for immigration benefits. To ensure consistency and to leverage the substantial subject matter expertise that USCIS has already developed, we recommend consolidating adjudication of all parole in place and deferred action requests from stateless noncitizens within a single unit at USCIS, regardless of whether such noncitizens have a final order of removal or are in immigration court proceedings and would generally fall under Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) jurisdiction. This approach would ensure consistency in the Department’s approach to statelessness issues. We also urge USCIS to consider granting parole-in-place and deferred action requests based on statelessness for a period of three years, rather than one year, and permitting concurrent filing of employment authorization applications.

Stateless noncitizens are disproportionately likely to experience lengthy periods of immigration detention in the United States because no country is obligated to accept the removal of a stateless person. We urge ICE to consider statelessness as a mitigating factor in favor of declining enforcement action when making determinations regarding arrests, detainers, removal proceedings, and the execution of removal orders. To accomplish this goal, we recommend that ICE develop guidance to better identify stateless noncitizens when ICE first encounters them, including by permitting ICE attorneys and officers to utilize the expertise of the specialized USCIS unit and request an advisory report on an individual’s potential statelessness when faced with cases that present indicators of statelessness in removal proceedings or in detention. This would allow ICE to be fully informed with respect to an individual’s statelessness when deciding whether to exercise discretion with respect to enforcement actions. 

We appreciate your efforts to improve protections for stateless individuals in the United States, a goal which we wholeheartedly share. We request a response by July 11, 2024, on steps DHS will take to ensure that the Department’s stated commitment is fully implemented by all components of the Department. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

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